Sport utility vehicles and mini-vans are a class of vehicles with sales that exceed most passenger automobiles combined. The advantage of such vehicles is the ability to haul passengers, while providing an enclosed cargo room not possible in a conventional automobile. The sport utility vehicle further lacks the stigma of a station wagon by including off-road capabilities, making them suitable for many types of uses.
Sport utility and mini-van vehicles include the ability to lay rear seats down so as to increase the available cargo area for hauling long items. When the vehicle is used to haul large items, items that are commonly carried in the rear section of the vehicle must be moved or removed to make room for the cargo to be hauled. For instance, flashlights, jumper cables, tools, flares, and wash rags are but a few items that are typically carried in a vehicle. Unfortunately, the cargo area of a sport utility vehicle or mini-van also serves as the trunk. Therefore, items typically placed in the rear of such a vehicle must be displaced so as not to interfere with additional cargo.
Further, the cargo area of a sport utility or mini-van vehicle is not amenable to concealing items placed therein. For this reason, a number of gear-concealing devices has been marketed and/or patented. For example, one option available in many mini-vans and sport utility vehicles is a retractable cover that visually shields stowed cargo. A cover typically covers a large area of cargo section, but is not effective when the vehicle seats are removed or folded down. In such instances the stowed gear is visible from many angles and may be attractive to thieves.
Retractable covers cannot support weight and their use typically limits the amount of storage room in a given vehicle. In addition, retractable covers may also have to be removed to provide uninhibited access to the vehicle cargo area. For instance, the cargo area may be used on an everyday basis to store flashlights, flares, and the like items useful for roadside emergencies. If the vehicle is used by a salesman, the cargo area could be filled with notebooks, samples, and other similar materials. If the cargo area is used with such everyday items, and the vehicle owner wishes to haul large items, the everyday items in the cargo area must be relocated, or removed completely. Often, this requires that such items are moved into plain sight, inviting theft or vandalism.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,890 discloses a device directed to the storage of items in a sport utility vehicle; however, this device consumes a majority of the available cargo space and does not provide any means for maximizing the cargo area while the device is unused.
What is lacking in the art is a storage container that includes advantages of the known devices, while addressing the shortcomings they exhibit. The container should fold flat to allow efficient utilization of the cargo area when the container is not in use. The device should also store numerous items securely, while providing structural integrity sufficient to allow support of items placed on top of the container. The device should allow simultaneous storage of items and support of oversized cargo.